City leaders wait for school boilers guidance

Published on Thursday 19 February 2009 08:47

CITY leaders are still waiting for Scottish Government guidance on whether to install a batch of environmentally friendly heating systems in Edinburgh schools.

Biomass boilers were set to be included in five secondary and two primary schools being built in the Capital, but the order was stopped in 2007 amid concerns from the science community about emissions called "particulates" from the boilers, which may cause respiratory problems.

Government research was published in November last year, but city leaders today said they wanted to wait for official government guidance on the issue.

With biomass boilers, unlike traditional gas boilers, no CO2 is released during heating.

Councillor Phil Wheeler, convener of the transport and environment committee, said: "Guidance from the Scottish Government is still awaited on the use of biomass boilers.

"I can give an assurance that consideration will be given to the use of biomass boilers in PPP2 schools, when the guidance becomes available."